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Victrola Espresso Beans are Great!

Here's another great espresso bean find from one of the Seattle roasters.

Victrola Coffee Roasters has two locations in Seattle, one on 15th Avenue East on Capitol Hill, and the other on famous Pike Street in downtown Seattle. When it comes to coffee roasting, Victrola keeps it simple; in terms of espresso roasts, there is only one, known as Streamline Espresso offered online at $13 per lb. I recently ordered 3lbs. The beans arrived on the third day after ordering.

The appearance of the beans is pale brown and the beans are dry as would be expected for a roast that has not got to the point of creating "dark beans". The beans create thick dark crema without fail using my Gaggia Evloution espresso maker and Solis Maestro burr grinder. As to taste, this roast is perfect for the straight up espresso shot (short black as I discovered on my recent trip to New Zealand); there is no hint of bitterness, and in fact the flavor is quite sweet. Because of this you want to be sure not to overwhelm the flavor when using the beans to make your favorite espresso-based milk beverages.

So these are definitely an excellent roast to add to your line up.

My next taste test is going to be of Illy's medium roast espresso beans. I just ordered 6 8oz cans from the Illy website for $72 (free ground shipping), so about twice the price of the Victrola beans! I have had Illy quite often in New Zealand coffee shops, but they are not common in coffee shops in the United States. Let's see if they are twice as good...

I made mention to my Gaggia espresso machine and Solis grinder above. I just realized that they are both about 2 years old now, and they have turned out an average of 3 double-shots of espresso per day. Some days a lot more than that when I have guests over. This is definitely the longest trouble-free experience I've had with a domestic espresso machine, and it's still going strong. You can read my reviews of the Gaggia Evolution espresso maker and the Solis Maestro burr grinder.

Do you have an online supplier of espresso beans that you'd like to recommend? If so, let me know by posting a comment below.